I'm a tech guy. In Vancouver. I run a really rad development shop called Outcome3. I love to play with Drupal.
...and I'm lame enough to use rad in every day life.
New exciting blog about Weddings
Just wanted to do a quick post re: our very own Madame Strut, Maura Rodgers, and her dirty little secret blog about her upcoming wedding. We're all very excited here in Struttaland for the upcoming nuptials, so it's great to see her blogging the process. Plus, it's a pretty fantastic resource for anyone interested in doing a wedding on Vancouver island. I think we can all agree that we need a little Maura This kind of transparent blogging.
Here ya go:
Free Willy, The Internet
Information without a price barrier is essential for the operation of a democratic society. Publicly-funded dailies are one remnant of old-world media that I fully back as solving (partially) this problem.
As we start to rely on the internet, in a non-centralized manner (see NowPublic's coverage of the Boxing Day tsunami as an example of grassroots citizen journalism), it's fairly obvious that newsprint isn't going to keep up with the pace of our world.
Vancouver Barcamp 2007 Wrap-up
Vancouver Barcamp 2007 went over without a hitch this year. With some last minute planning, we threw an impromptu keg and pizza party that was well attended. Thanks to everyone who came by!
Transparency and You(tube)
Let's face it – everything we do is out there, somewhere. Our search histories are in corporate hands. Our Facebook profiles are at the very least scanned daily by our friends (likely some that we haven't seen since grade school!). Emails and blog posts are forever. We can't escape the reality that soon all of our behavior, good and bad, is out there for good.
There's an entire generation growing up now where access to these technologies is as unremarkable as having a conversation. Suddenly what used to be whispered is now posted.
As a result, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook busts for offline behavior (ranging from drug stings to expulsions for underage drinking at prominent Universities) are obviously here to stay. It seems every MySpace page has a picture of a teen drinking. Every LiveJournal has someone talking about suicide. Companies exist purely to erase these online admissions to save future face. My response: why?
Fun with Blip.tv and Drupal
One of the things keeping me busy periodically over the last few weeks has been integrating blip.tv with the embedded CCK video module. There's already a submitted patch for a basic version of the modules' output and blip.tv, but it ignores some of the best functionality that blip.tv has to offer (thumbnail generation and original file hosting).
I've been conspiring with Roland and the rest of the folks on Bryght on the best way to make this happen. One of the distinct advantages that blip.tv offers over its competitors is that they host your original media file, as well as generating a flash file for you to host on your page.
Having access to the original file has some really awesome advantages - original filesize + enclosures in rss = itunes feed. Want to push to feedburner? Include a link to the original file, and get an automatic videocast listing.
Drupal Search - New Firefox Extension
The biggest gripe my team has about the drupal APIs is that once you're inside a tree, you can't search easily. I've always wanted to try making my own Firefox extension - this seemed like an ideal starter project.
Initial specs were much larger; I built a section to let you add new Drupal sites to search on. We really wanted to get this out, so I removed those bits.
The result?
Drupal Module Review #6 - Panels
Project Name:
Panels (http://drupal.org/project/panels)
Project Maintainer:
Module Description:
I was inspired by a client (Lee LeFever of CommonCraft) to give this module a shot.
Drupal Module Review #5 - Scheduler
Project Name:
Scheduler (http://drupal.org/project/scheduler)
Project Maintainer:
Module Description:
This is a fantastic module. Very lightweight, easy to install.
Drupal Module Review #4 - Technorati
Project Name:
Technorati (http://drupal.org/project/technorati)
Project Maintainer:
Module Description:
This is a really simple module that works pretty well. Technorati, a well known blog aggregator, can easily drive traffic to a modest size blog. This module integrates the Drupal tagging system with Technorati's tagging system, ensuring that posts get added to the right categories on technorati.com. The only confusing aspect of the configuration of the module is the options for tagging. The settings page lets you define which content types to turn Technorati tagging on, with two options: Drupal default or manual entry. Manual entry adds another form to the node creation page to set in custom tags (different than your internal posting taxonomy).
Back to business...
Submitted by admin on Tue, 04/24/2007 - 12:54.Sorry about that folks. My posting schedule was hit hard by an exciting new project at Outcome3. Things should be back on track now.
It's also my pleasure to announce a new addition Outcome3, Alexa Booth. She brings much needed design talent to our team - we're very excited about working with her.